Tymora's Luck - Kate Novak [40]
Now Finder found himself powerless to help the patroness he cared for. As a mortal Finder had always been a man of action. As a god, he would feel no less frustrated by his helplessness.
Tymora's priestess, Winnie, faced a critical dilemma. As Finder had pointed out to her, any spells she cast on her mistress would ultimately draw from her mistress's power, so it was perhaps best for her to take a different role in the crisis. At the god's advice, the halfling priestess had hurried off to arrange security for the area and to request the aid of Tymora's oldest ally, the goddess Selune. Finder, Joel, Jas, and Emilo had formed a circle about Tymora, anticipating an attack, perhaps from Beshaba, perhaps from some unknown enemy.
"How is it," Emilo asked, "that Tymora and her sister are enemies?"
"Joel," Finder said, "tell Emilo the story of Tyche."
"Tyche?" Joel asked, his mind fixated on danger, not old tales.
"Yes, Tyche. They still teach her tale at that fancy barding college in Berdusk, don't they?" the god snapped at his priest.
"Yes," Joel said, realizing that his god was far more worried than he let on. The bard paused for a moment, trying to remember the traditional beginning to the tale of Tyche.
"Feel free to improvise," Finder said with a more even humor.
"Right. A long time ago," Joel began, "even before the fall of Myth Drannor, there was a great war between the gods of Toril over who would be their leader. It was known as the Dawn Cataclysm because it was started by Lathander when he decided that he should be that leader. Lathander is the god of beginnings," Joel added for Emilo's benefit. "Births, spring, and dawn are all his purview. Also called the Morninglord, he's a god of good. At the time of the Dawn Cataclysm, Lathander was favored with the love of Tyche, the goddess of all luck, good and bad, but Tyche wanted no part in the conflict Lathander had begun. She kissed Lathander with misfortune and left him to his war.
"Tyche wandered about the Realms for some time. As she rested on a snow-capped mountain surveying the land all about her, a rosebud burst through the snow at her feet. The bud showed no sign of damage from the harsh setting in which it had grown. It was just on the verge of opening its petals and promised to be perfect in every way. Because of the circumstances of the rose's appearance, Tyche took it to be an overture of peace from Lathander.
"The goddess of luck reached down to pluck the rose, but the stem wouldn't break. Tyche yanked harder, only to be rewarded by thorns in her fingers. She cursed the young blossom with bad luck, and the stem snapped right off. Annoyed that the gift had proved so difficult, Tyche decided to keep Lathander waiting a while longer. She continued wandering about the Realms, with the rose fastened in her hair above her ear.
"The rose, however, was not an offering from Lathander but a trap set by Moander the Darkbringer, god of decay. The rose blossomed, and its pollen drifted into her ear, where it began to rot her from the inside out. Thus the Darkbringer hoped to gain for himself Tyche's power over luck.
"When Tyche returned to her home in the outer planes, Selune, goddess of the moon, was there waiting to speak with her. Selune was instantly aware of the corruption eating away at her friend. Without a moment's hesitation-"
"-she lashed out," said another voice, "with a bolt of purifying light that split Tyche down the center of her rotting core. All that was good and kind in Tyche coalesced into a single form and stepped out from Tyche's rotting corpse. That was Tymora. I brought her forth from the tragedy of Tyche's corruption, and she possessed power over good fortune." The speaker appeared